Necessary: The Story of Rose and Scorpius
by Banares
Summary: With the Malfoy name, no one would ever wish to be my friend. But who is the girl that walks up to me in this room full of children whose futures hold so much promise and wishes to share my disgrace? "Scorpius Malfoy," I say and watch her for emotion
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Alright, to those who read the earlier versions of this story, I hope you don't get confused. This is essentially the same story, just written differently. In the earlier version, the first six chapters were going to be important memories from Rose and Scorpius's first six years together to establish character, and then the rest would be the actual story during their seventh year. I decided it just wasn't moving fast enough, so I changed it to start from their seventh year, with the original first six chapters being interspersed as flashbacks. I like this version much better. I hope you like it!

* * * *

**Chapter 1:** **Frenzied** **Gnomes and Maidenly Cheeks of Honesty**

This could not be happening. This could _not _be happening. Rose kept repeating this sentence over and over in her mind as she stared at the little badge in her hand. She briefly considered whether it had been sent to the wrong address. Yes, that was it! The badge was meant for some mousy prude in her year, preferably one who wore thick glasses and carried piles of books around that were higher than her head and used words like "perfunctory" and attached "-esque" instead of "-ish" to words to make them adjectives.

After all, _nobody_, especially Professor McGonagall, would make _Rose Weasley_ Head Girl. It was unthinkable. I mean, who did they think she was? Her _mother_? To be fair, Rose did receive top marks in most of her classes like her mother had in her days at Hogwarts, but she was definitely _not_HeadGirl material. She had received more detentions in one year than all of her dorm mates combined had in their collective lives! And she was to one who got the badge? Where was the justice in that?!

It was early morning and the Weasley kitchen looked as it always did in the morning: clean and ready for action, thanks to Grandma Molly.

"Hey, whatcha lookin' at?" came the characteristic voice of her cousin James behind her. James was a tall youth, with his father's messy black hair and his mother's brown eyes. His arms and legs looked to be slightly too long for his body, but cord-like muscles rippled down them every time he moved: the only thing he took seriously was Quidditch.

Rose whirled around, hiding the badge behind her back, and said, "Nothing!" a little too quickly _Damn! _She cursed as she felt the blush travel up her cheek. _Why can't I ever lie without my face turning into a tomato?_

James, who was in the process of raiding a kitchen cabinet of anything edible (boys his age could eat their weight in junk food) stopped when he saw the blush. He smirked, brown eyes lighting up when he knew there was something she wasn't telling him. "Nothing, eh? Alright Little Miss Smarty Pants, then what's that behind your back?"

Rose considered lying again, but grew resigned to the fact that he would find out sooner or later anyway. With an expression appropriate to someone tying the noose around her own neck, Rose revealed the damning object. It was a gold, circular badge, the word 'HeadGirl' emblazoned underneath a rendering of the Hogwarts crest.

James, having recognized the badge at once, stared at it, slack jawed. After the shock had worn off, James began to laugh. "HeadGirl? _HeadGirl?! _Are you crazy?! Oh Merlin and Morgana, this is rich. I've got to tell Alec! Hold on, don't move!" And before she could stop him, James ran away, snorting with laughter as he went to find his partner in crime.

Schmuck.

Now feeling like a thoroughly mistreated circus elephant, Rose sulked at the kitchen table. However, this state of emotion did not last long. A small brown-and-white spotted owl zipped through the open window and landed in front of her. Rose untied the letter hanging from its leg and the bird took off immediately, not waiting for any reply. On the envelope was the letter "S" and Rose suddenly found herself incredibly happy. She knew who the letter was from.

_* * *_

_Please wait in here, and I will come back for you once we are ready for you," Professor Flitwick says in his squeaky voice. He leaves as we file into the room._

_I can hear hundreds of muffled footsteps and conversations outside the room we are in, and I guess that the older students have arrived at the castle. I give a moment's thought to their method of transportation (They obviously didn't come in boats) before I turn to the situation directly at hand: The Sorting. I feel a dull sort of panic as I hear the clamor recede. I have heard of the students being sorted into houses before, but no one has ever told me how its done. I look around to see faces that reflect my own worry, and fervent whispering as the people talk of what's to come._

_Among our group, I know only my cousin James Potter and a girl named Olivia Stanton, who I met on the train. She is now standing in a corner, looking green and not much in the mood for opening her mouth. I search about and see that most of the students have formed themselves into small, defensive groups. James himself is ensconced by a group of students that have been clearly attracted by his last name._

_However, there is one person who seems to be a part of no group and, in fact, is looking completely at ease and self assured. He is resting his back against the wall and has crossed his arms across his chest, tapping his heel against the wall as though he thinks of this all as a waste of time. He is extremely pale, as though he is not often out in the sun, which is made more noticeable be the black hair that frames his face. His chin is slightly pointed and he holds his nose in an almost arrogant way.__ For all his arrogance, his lips are turned in a frown as he surveys the tightly knit groups, none of which ask to include him. He looks about himself, affecting disdain, but I see his hand reach up to rub the back of his neck, and his head dip for a second as though he is self-conscious. Is he looking for some one else who has not been included? Perhaps that is the reason that his eyes rest on me longer than the others and his arms relax to his side, perhaps with relief. I can see his eyes are hazel mixed with blue._

_I walk towards him and stop in front of him. I can see his surprise reflected in his widening eyes and lifting eyebrows. His heel stops its tattoo against the wall. I ignore these signs and smile as encouragingly as I can. Something about this boy, who is so confident yet so vulnerable, has caught my attention. I wish to be friends with him._

_"Hello, my name is Rose, pleased to meet you."_

* * *

"-I'm telling you, its true! She's got the badge and everything!" came the unwelcome voice of James once again, this time accompanied by the melodious groan of a thoroughly annoyed and pissed-off Alec behind him, looking as though he'd been dragged out of his bed against his will. It was odd how, even in this bedraggled and unkempt state, Alec still managed to look like a male model. _It must be the veela blood from his mum. _

However, Alec's angelic face turned to disbelief as he saw the badge, "No way! _You?_ How the _hell _did they make you HeadGirl?"

"Thanks, I really appreciate the amount of faith and confidence you guys put in me," retorted Rose acidly, her own surprise at the appointment long forgotten.

The blond boy turned his regal head upward, making his beautiful features seem appropriate on the face of a haughty aristocrat. "Sorry," he said, implying the opposite in each syllable.

"Oooooh, watch it Alec, or we'll lose points for Gryffindor if we're not careful, what with Little Rosie on our tails," jibed James.

Alec sneered as well, showing suspiciously the pointed teeth he'd adopted from his father, reminding Rose once again that he was part werewolf as well as part veela. "I guess our days as Hogwarts' resident criminals are over then." Before Rose would react, he picked up the letter that had come with the badge and began to read it. "A-_hem. Dear Ms. Rosalie Grace Weasley, I am pleased to inform you blah blah blah you will uphold the honor of the school blah blah blah keep order blah blah blah punish miscreants blah blah blah pride blah blah blah teamwork blah blah blah Scorpius Malfoy blah bla-," _but Alec stopped mid-blah just as James tore the letter rudely out of his hand.

"_The new HeadBoy is Scorpius Malfoy? _What the f-," he began, as Grandma Molly, who had just bustled into the kitchen gave him a look. James quailed underneath her death glare and then continued, "Uh-what I mean to say is, how did that Malfoy _pig_become HeadBoy?"

"Well, if McGonagall would make _Rose _HeadGirl, then its not much of a stretch, is it?" said Alec, rolling his eyes.

_Schmuck_.

Rose glared at him, but unfortunately, her eyes had none of the power her grandmother's had. Alec did not look remotely afraid for his life.

"Stuff it, Alec," she sneered instead and turned as her other cousins, Lily and Albus, stumbled, half asleep, into the kitchen as well. The two twin sister and brother, only one year younger than Rose, James, and Alec, were due to begin their sixth year at Hogwarts in less than a week.

Lily, who was more alert than Al, noticed Rose's HeadGirl badge first and, unlike the older boys' reaction, beamed and congratulated her. She then turned to her breakfast and her mail. James, without even the pretense of trying to look as though he was scratching an itch, bent over her shoulder to read the names of her correspondents. Lily glared at him and snapped, "Excuse me, can you please stop breathing down my neck? I'm trying to read my mail."

Rose rolled her eyes. Honestly, the Potter boys were much too protective of their only sister, especially James, who was a year older than her.

"Are you still dating that guy, Froggy, or whatever his name was? You know, you're going through boyfriends pretty fast," he admonished in a voice so elder-brotherly that, if Rose didn't know any better, belonged to someone with the bedroom history of a monk.

"His name was Daniel Frodge," Lily answered, leveling a glare to match Grandma Weasley's (_she gets the ability to incinerate someone with a look and I'm cursed with the Maidenly Cheeks of Honesty? Curse you genetics!). _"And I broke up with him in June, when he graduated. I don't want to have a long distance relationship. Not that its any of your business ." With that, she twitched her letters away from James' eyes and settled down to read them.

Albus, wisely staying out of the conflict, looked visibly relieved at this and went back to his food, but James wasn't finished yet. "What's _this _then?" James asked, lifting a letter from Lily's pile that was addressed from Alvin McCohany.

"McCohany?" Albus asked, finally becoming a part of the conversation. "Our Beater? You do know that he doesn't have the cleanest dating record, right Lily?"

"I don't care if he's shagging first years, Al, he is _not_ my boyfriend."

"Well then, what are you doing writing to him?" asked James.

"He's my _friend_, James. And he told me that that's all he wants to be."

"Yeah, well, stick around and you'll see his definition of 'friendship' involves foreplay in a cramped broom closet!"

"And what's wrong with foreplay and cramped broom closets?" asked a teasing voice, and all five teens turned to face the speaker, standing in the doorway. She was a girl their age, though she looked rather small. She had a head of close-cropped, bouncy chestnut hair that hugged a round, moon-like face. Her dark eyes surveyed them sleepily.

Alice.

James jumped up at once to greet her. "Alice! When did you get here?"

"Last night, but you lot were sleeping," she answered, and when James said she could've woken him, she laughed and said, "You'd have pulled me into bed right along with you if I'd done that. You'd probably have thought I was part of one of your pervy dreams."

"I do _not_have pervy dreams," said James indignantly.

"Actually," Alec said, "You've told me about quite a few of them. Like the one you had just two days ago, remember? The one where you were in the Black Lake with-."

But James put an end to his reminiscing by very discreetly stomping on his foot. "O-_kay_ Alec, I think we get the point, no need to give them the details."

But Alec was not quite through. "Well, most of them are about you," he said quickly to Alice, before James could cause him any further harm.

"_Most _of them?" she whispered, eyes narrowing dangerously...

***

Of course, in true James/Alice tradition, they had a blazing row on their reunion after nearly two months of separation. However, if fighting and arguing about everything was common to them, so was making up. Thus, five minutes into the row, it abruptly ended. This was greeted unenthusiastically by their spectators, who ranks had been swelled with the addition of Fred, Hugo, Cordelia, Lana, Ted, and Victoire. Not that anyone had anything against perverted dreams, but nobody really had anything else to do, deterred as they were from the outside by the rain.

A half an hour later, with no sign of James anywhere, Hugo fearfully suggested that Alice might still have been angry and, deciding he wasn't worth the trouble, had fed him to the garden gnomes outside the house. Rose had pronounced this theory as the height of silliness for, as she pointed out, rain put garden gnomes into a state of frenzied urgency and caused them to mate at an alarming rate (Apparently this had to do with the fact that the gnomes thought that the sky was falling and that they had better shag as much as they could before the world ended. Hugo refrained from asking what they did when it snowed.) and thus would be in no mood to eat anything, even bits of slow-roasted James.

Instead, they found James (uncooked and whole) and Alice a half an hour later, snogging in a second story bathroom. Not even attempting to look embarrassed, James simply looked up irately and with a "Do you mind? We're busy here!" he slammed the door in their faces.

Ted shook his head, smiling slightly. "Those two. If they aren't tearing at each other's throats, they're tearing at each other's clothes." Ted and Victoire were the only overage adults at the Burrow, besides Grandma and Grandpa Weasley. It was traditional for the young Weasley cousins to spend the last week of summer break at their parents' childhood home. It was a first time for Alice however, as her parents were going on their second honeymoon before her father, Neville, resumed his job as Herbology professor at Hogwarts. And, as many of her friends and her current boyfriend were there, Alice had no trouble staying at the Burrow while her parents were in Bermuda.

"It is quite unhealthy for their relationship to bicker so much," Cordelia primly stated, pushing her horn-rimmed glasses (so like her father Percy's) farther up her nose.

"Yeah, arguing so much can't be great for them, can it?" echoed Lana in simpler terms.

Lily and Albus appeared worried as well, but Rose and Hugo were not afraid. After all, they'd seen their own argumentative parents fight and make up for just about their entire lives.

Albus, speaking as carefully as he always did, said "I don't know, but I think Alice is good for him. He's always been competitive, and he doesn't really value something that he didn't fight to get. Maybe that's what he feels about love too. He's never had a girlfriend for more than a month before and he and Alice been together for the better part of two years."

"Well, if they get married, then Neville and Hannah'll be related to us," said Hugo, happily. Neville was his favorite teacher.

Rose snorted, "Wait a few generations, and every wizarding family in Britain'll be related to us. Everyone knows the Weasleys multiply like rabbits. Then they'll be no one to marry but muggles."

"Nothing wrong with that," muttered Lana, whose mother, Anne, was a muggle. She had gotten her powers from her father, Charlie.

After more debate about the population demographics of the Weasley family, the rain stopped long enough for them to get in a quick game of Quidditch. Rose, Hugo, James, Lily, and Al played against Lana, Ted, Vicky, Fred, and Alec behind the house. Cordelia declined, saying (in a rather pompous voice) that she had too much work to do and that no one should disturb her. And since Cordelia was so bad at the game that she often proved useful to the other team, no one cared very much.

* * *

Rose made sure that everyone was asleep before she slipped out of bed to retrieve his letter from its hiding place. In the dim wand light, the swirling black 'S' was just visible on the envelope. A letter from Scorpius was a rare thing. They had decided long ago not to write to each other unless absolutely necessary. She unfolded the letter and held her wand close to it to read.

_Rose- _

_Hey, just got my school letter, and I made HeadBoy. I'm so glad you're HeadGirl! This year is gonna be awesome! _

_-_ _S_

Feeling slightly disappointed at the brevity of the letter, Rose nonetheless folded the slip of paper and slid it back into the envelope. She returned the letter back to its hiding place and laid on her bed after extinguishing her wand. For the first time since she had opened her school letter, she felt happy about being HeadGirl.

Even if she had to do patrols.

Even if she had to go to meetings.

Even if she had to watch over snot-nosed first years.

Even if she had to follow the rules.

Even if she couldn't pull pranks.

Rose winced. That last one hurt.

* * *

September the first came upon the Weasley family in a sneaking way: before they could quite get it around their heads, it was the last day of August and their parents had come to stay the last night of their vacation at the Weasley house before escorting them to the station the next day.

Their parents arrived midday, apparating in pairs. The first to arrive were the Delacour and Weasley couple: Uncle Bill, his face strikingly ravaged and wolf-like stood with Aunt Fleur, contrasting him with her beauty. Vicky and Ted both ran out to greet them and Rose noticed how the two had inherited their parents' traits in equal part. The two were as beautiful as Fleur, but their eyes and teeth and the way they reacted were animal-like, similar to their father. No one arrived for Vicky's fiance, Ted. His parents, Remus and Nympthadora Lupin were dead, but he seemed to share something with the Weasley-Delacour family. He was not beautiful, despite the fact that he could have easily made himself as attractive as Vicky or Alec because of his metamorphamagus powers. However, he had that same air about him, the same hunter-like alertness. Rose supposed Ted and Vicky were a good match.

Despite Ted's lack of parents, his godfather Uncle Harry and his wife Aunt Ginny embraced him as readily and with as much affection as they did James, Lily, and Al. Uncle Harry was of middling height and wore the glasses and messy black hair that Rose had always seen him with. Aunt Ginny was slightly shorter and had the characteristic red Weasley hair that Lily inherited and brown eyes, which she had given to James. Uncle Harry had given his black hair to the boys and his green eyes to Lily and Albus.

Next to come where Uncle Charlie and Auntie Anne, coming directly from their visit to Romania, Anne's childhood home. Anne had a kind face and auburn hair, but had to side-along apparate with Charlie because she was a muggle. Her only daughter Lana ran to greet them.

Next came Uncle Percy with his wife and childhood sweetheart, Aunt Penelope and his older daughter, Astrid. Astrid was a professional Quidditch player and as different from her younger sister Cordelia as the sun was from the moon. She played for the Holyhead Harpies.

Directly after came George and Angelina for their son Fred, named after George's twin brother, deceased even before most of them were born. They were a light-hearted couple, much given to joking and pranks and playing Quidditch (something they had given to their son), despite the obvious scars they carried of the Second War.

Last to come were Rose's own parents, Ron and Hermione, the former red and haired and freckled, the latter bushy, brown haired and brown eyed. Hugo was his mother's son through and through, not only did he look like her, but he was an intellectual like her as well. Rose, on the other hand, was more like her father. She contained the characteristic Weasley hair, although slightly darker than her father's and his blue eyes. But more than that, she was the keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, just like her father had been, and had the same disregard for the rules that he had, although her grades were as good as Hugo's.

As soon as the couple landed, Ron hit the ground howling and clutching his right ear, or rather, Rose thought, what was left of his ear, which was an empty socket. He'd splinched himself. By the time Hermione managed to fix it, he'd bled quite a decent amount of blood and she was in a raging mood.

"Ronald Weasley, why can't you go three minutes without messing up!? I swear, you are a walking talking disaster waiting to happen!"

Ron was not feeling so perky either, casting an annoyed look at his wife, and still clutching his throbbing right ear, he said, "Well, I'm sorry, but since when have you become my parole officer?"

"_Since, I married you, you fool! _No, scratch that, I've been taking care of you since the time I met you when we were first years!"

"All I remember is an annoying voice telling me its Levi-_o_-sa, not Levios-_a_."

"And its damn good I told you, considering you'd have died when you faced that troll if I hadn't said anything."

"I wouldn't have had to face a troll if you hadn't needed saving!"

"Well, I wouldn't have needed saving if you and Harry hadn't locked the thing in with me!"

Rose, Hugo, James, Lily and Al looked at each other with wide eyes. They hadn't known their parents had fought trolls when they were first years.

Of course, like it always was when Ron and Hermione fought, it was Uncle Harry who came between them, carrying the olive branch.

"Oh come now, you're being children," he admonished. "Look, Rose and Hugo have missed you very much. You're neglecting them."

As Ron and Hermione turned to them, Rose and Hugo hastily put on faces of deepest lonliness. They embraced and Hermione asked them how they were and if they'd had a good time. Ron asked if they'd practiced Quidditch.

* * * *

And so the summer ended and the very next day, they found themselves at King's Cross, blinking in the bright sunlight of the morning and dodging luggage trolleys. The station was how it always looked on September the first: loud and jubilant and festive, with students finding their friends after a long summer away from them and parents glad that the summer was finally over so that they could get their kids out of their hair. The large Weasley group satyed slightly apart from everyone else, saying their goodbyes.

The Weasley were a tight-knit and loving family, everyone knew that...

_"Ron! George! _You can_not_ give them Filibuster Fireworks! If you get them suspended, I WILL KILL YOU, DO YOU UNDRSTAND?!" screamed Hermione.

Well, she hadn't said they always showed it...

"Aw, relax, 'Mione," said George in what he clearly thought was a soothing voice. "These aren't Filibuster Fireworks. They're the new patented Weasley-Works we've developed at Weasely's Wizard Wheezes. They're much better quality..."

George and Hermione continued to bicker, while friends of the young Weaselys drifted past, exchanging greetings. The first of her friends to come to her was Akira, a perpetually smiling black-haired and brown-eyed Asian girl whose mother Cho was a Quidditch player alongside her cousin Astrid on the Holyhead Harpies. Her smile widened even further when she saw Rose and embrace her, and talking at a lightening speed about everything that happened during her summer, including her new boyfriend, Sean Daley, another fellow seventh year Gryffindor.

Morgan Alison came next, a reserved brunette that generally wore glasses and carried many books. She nodded to both Rose and Alice and, strangely, Alec in an almost indifferent way as she walked past them.

The last they saw of their seventh year house mates were Sean Daley himself, greeting them enthusiastically and Olivia Stanton, giving them a tiny smile. Rose had never really been close with Olivia and had always felt a little awkard around her, but what truelly had driven them apart was Olivia's crush on her cousin James. Unfortunately, Olivia hadn't been too happy with finding that James was too wrapped up in Alice to even notice her. This caused Olivia to be -er- _quite_ unpleasent to Alice, who'd in turn been furious to find that Olivia was making advances on her boyfriend. James, of course, was oblivious to the whole affair. Rose, however, was forced to choose between the two and obviously chose Alice, her best friend apart from Akira and the one she had known the longest. This in turn caused Olivia to get mad at the both of them and on the whole the girls' dormitory was not a peaceful place to be in during their sixth year. But Olivia had had the summer to cool herself down and Rose was sure that she'd gotten over him. Olivia's love was a fickle thing. Alice however, did not forget and stared at Olivia's receding back for a long time, teeth and fists clenched.

Rose sighed. This was going to be some year.

* * * *

A/N: Alright, there's the new first chapter! I included a flashback from the original story! **The** **next chapter will be submited on** **January 15th**, my birthday!

R&R!!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry, I said the 15th, but here its the 24th that I'm submitting this, but I had stuff going on. XOXOXO

* * * * *

**Chapter 2: Prank Wars and Missing Parts **

Rose watched bemusedly as a tense bubble formed to surround her family and Scorpius, becoming smaller and smaller with every step Scorpius took. The deafening sounds of hundreds of footsteps and voices seemed to fade in the background. The glaring stares that her family gave Scorpius were barbed ropes that connected them.

Rose fidgeted as Scorpius walked closer. In the six years she had known him, had been his best friend, he had grown to tower over her, his black hair almost touching his shoulder. His nose was slightly too long for his face and his chin was slightly pointed, like his father's. He had grown into his frame as the years went by, becoming well-proportioned. As he walked, a slight wind blew his ink black hair into his eyes, and for one insane moment, Rose wanted to reach up and stroke it back despite the distance between them.

Scorpius stopped a few meters away from the Weasley and Potter group, knowing better than to get too close. Alec and Fred changed their positions slightly to flank James, in case it came to a duel, despite the presence of adults. Hugo made a noise in his throat that sounded very like a growl. The others simply watched him, eyes glinting. Beyond them, other students and parents milled about without a glance or a concern about the potential disaster that could unfold.

Despite the waves of hatred emanating from the group, Scorpius looked up at Rose's family members with an amused smile that only she could see. A few tense moments passed before James broke it.

"What do you want, _Malfoy_?"

Scorpius's eyes flitted for a brief moment to James and then back to Rose before replying, "I need Weasley here." He gestured towards Rose.

James seemed to deflate for a moment. He'd been expecting it do be more difficult, maybe get in a few punches, thought Rose, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, Malfoy?" said James, taking a step forward, "And what if she doesn't _want_ to go, huh?"

This time, Scorpius's gaze stayed on James and he looked annoyed. "I need her for the Head's Meeting, moron."

"You did _not _just insult me, Malfoy!"

"Yes, I did, Potter, what are you going to do? Throw a quaffle at me?"

"Leave him alone!" shouted Alice, drawing her wand. Everyone, including Scorpius, eyed it warily. Despite her meager size, she was an accomplished dueler. Hermione gasped and made a move to stop her, but Harry grabbed her wrist and gave her a look that said, "Leave it."

"Sorry to break this cozy little chat we're having," began Rose, "but I really need to get to the meeting." She began inching over to Scorpius, but Ron caught her arm.

"Rose, I need to talk to you for a second."

"Sure, Dad, what is it?" asked Rose as he led her a little way from the group and Scorpius. They stopped near a pillar.

"Now don't get me wrong, Rosie," he began when they were out of earshot. "I'm really happy you made Head Girl, but I don't like you working with this Malfoy character."

"Don't worry, Dad, I'll be fine!"

"I know you can take care of yourself. Merlin knows I've taught you and Hugo enough about dueling. And you've got your mother's brains," he said with a grin, looking more like her father usually looked. "But still," he turned serious again, looking years older than what he actually was, "I want you to promise me something."

Rose looked at her father warily and carefully said, "What about?"

"Promise me you'll watch your back with him. That you won't...do anything stupid." Rose nearly snorted. Her dad was such a hypocrite sometimes.

"Yeah, of course, Dad," said Rose easily.

"Promise me you won't trust him, Rose."

Rose felt her mouth go dry. "Wh-what do you mean by that?"

"Just promise me!"

Rose saw over his shoulder Scorpius begin to walk towards them. It was almost time for departure.

"Er-yeah, Dad."

Ron looked relieved and pulled her into a hug. "Thanks, I hope you have a great year, Rose-Posie."

Scorpius, now close enough to hear them, chose that moment to lapse into a hacking cough. Rose glared at him as he mouthed, "_Rosie-Posie?" _with silent glee.

Rose broke the hug and, without looking her father in the eyes, said, "Bye Dad, see you at Christmas." She walked away from him to Scorpius, feeling strangely as though she had betrayed him. Scorpius gave her a smile that no one else could see and fell into place next to her, matching her stride to the train. Inside, they continued through the narrow corridor, Scorpius leading the way to the compartment.

"How far is it?" asked Rose as they shuffled through the claustrophobic space.

"Its up at the front of the train."

"How was your summer?"

"Boring. Missed talking to you. You?"

"The usual. Well, except the whole 'Head Girl' thing. Alec and James made loads of fun." Rose laughed. "I'll get them for that. I can give them detentions! This year's going to be brilliant!"

Scorpius craned his neck to look back at her and gave her a crooked smile, "Yeah. Brilliant."

They finally reached the Heads' and Prefects' Compartment and sat down to wait for the Prefects. There was a moment of silence before Scorpius broke it.

"So...Rosie-Posie..." Rose glared.

"_Don't _call me that!"

Scorpius laughed. "Why not? Its a charming name. Maybe I should keep calling you that. I wonder how your cousins would take it? Would they curse me to avenge your pride or would they just make fun?"

"They'd probably use it as an excuse to curse you and _then _make fun of me."

Scorpius laughed at that. "You're probably right. Your cousins never pass up a fight."

"You can't blame them, you know. Its in their blood. We all grew up hearing stories about our parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles battling it out with dark wizards and creatures and saving the entire wizarding world on a regular basis. We all want to be a part of that."

Scorpius was no longer smiling. "I never heard those stories. At least, not from my dad. I heard a lot from people who thought I wasn't listening. But they were never very nice to my parents."

Rose looked at her shoes. "You're not your parents."

"I know. But I want to be."

"What?" asked Rose with a slight laugh, "You want to be a muggle-hating supremacist?"

Scorpius laughed too. They were two short blasts of mirth that echoed in the compartment. "No. Not that part. I meant the way they just bear everything. All of the sneering and bitterness from people who tell them they should be rotting in Azkaban."

"But you do, too," whispered Rose, looking up at him. "You never say a word, even when a normal person would have cursed those jerks to oblivion."

Scorpius shrugged, "Maybe my parents are trying to...repent for their past decisions."

"So...what are you repenting for?"

Scorpius let out another laugh. "I don't know."

The compartment door slid open then and the Prefects began to enter, looking nervously at Rose and Scorpius. They knew being in the same room as a Weasley and a Malfoy could be potentially suicidal. Rose sadly turned her attention from Scorpius and tacked on glower. It would not be right to look too happy in public, considering she was sitting next to a Malfoy.

* * * * * *The next morning.* * * * *

Being home again always had a profound effect on Scorpius's mind. Summers were long and full of tension and disappointment. At school, even if pretty much the entire student population either avoided him or acted bitterly towards him, at least he had Quidditch, school work, and the company of his best friend to keep him busy. Of course, the third of these was the hardest to obtain, but hopefully their appointment to Head positions would help that.

Scorpius was made to come back down to earth by the slamming of the bathroom door. Daniel Mortenson took a step into the room and realized that he and Scorpius were last in the dorm. Mortenson was a tall brunette, with wide cheekbones and narrow blue eyes. He wrinkled his nose as he surveyed Scorpius, as though he could smell the Malfoy blood that was flowing through his veins. Acting as though he wasn't there, Scorpius walked out of the dorm. _Stupid, prejudiced idiots, who needs them? _Scorpius walked out of the Slytherin Common Room and ascended the steps on the way to the Great Hall. All the other students ignored him. He considered this a good thing, as any attention he attracted was often of the malicious kind.

Just as he was turning a corner, Scorpius caught sight of a flick of familiar dark blond hair. He automatically side stepped behind a group of fifth years and bent his knees to hide himself better. A light flush appeared on his cheek and ears and his heart began palpitating. _Brilliant, just brilliant! _

It was Elmira Lee. The sixth year Ravenclaw girl Scorpius had been infatuated with for almost two years. And the girl that had rejected him during the last school year. Scorpius blushed brighter just at the memory.

* * * * * flashback * * * * *

_I smooth out my robes and steal myself as the footsteps come closer. I feel a horrible sense of dread as I realize she isn't alone. _Oh no. Oh no. I can't do this. I can't do this! _But its already too late. No going back now. The footsteps stop, the door is wrenched open, and sure enough, Elmira is with her friend Sasha Singer. The girls take a few steps into the Owlery before they notice that I am there, standing ankle-deep in owl poop. _Great, don't I look just absolutely dashing?

_The reactions of the two girls are very different. Sasha's eyes narrow and her lips curl, as though something unpleasant had just caught her eye in an otherwise perfect picture. _I'm more unpleasant than owl poo? Nice. Wonderful.

_Elmira's eyes, those large orbs of liquid sky, widen in surprise and her lips, her beautiful, kissable lips part, as though she is going to say something. However, she glances at Sasha by her side and closes her mouth, silent and staring._

"_Er, hi." _Hi? After two years of obsessive stalking, that's all I can come up with?

"_Hello," says Elmira in her soft, melodious voice. Like a child's voice. _

"_I-I had to ask you a question." _

"_Yes?"_

"_Er, we're having a Hogsmeade weekend and, erm, would you like to, uh, go with me?" _Was that even intelligible?

_Sasha's eyes widen, and her mouth drops open. She looks at me in disgust. She throws Elmira a glare. Elmira also looks surprised, and smiles a little bit. Its a rueful little smile, and I already know the answer._

"_I'm sorry," she says. "I can't." She turns to go, my thoughts in turmoil at the rejection, when Sasha finally speaks, unable to hold her sentiments in._

"_You've got some nerve, Malfoy! Asking her out like you though you had a chance!" _

"_Sasha!" whispers Elmira, looking at her friend in an alarmed way. _

"_What? I'm telling him the truth! Nobody likes him. He's got no friends. He's a loser. Even you think it!"_

_Elmira throws a frightened glance my way before turning on her friend, "Sasha!" She cries again, not knowing what else to say._

"_Don't 'Sasha' me! You know I'm right." she turns to address me again, " And you! You think people like us would want to be associated with a bloke who's parents should be locked up in Azkaban?"_

_I don't hear another word. I stride past them and quickly walk down the corridors. I knew this had been a mistake. It was a mistake to think that a girl like Elmira would want a Hogwarts reject like me. It was a mistake to think my request would be accepted. That I would be accepted. By the time I am outside, I'm practically running._

* * * * *End of flashback * * * * *

Scorpius sighed as he walked further and further away. How embarrassing. He didn't think he'd ever be able to look Elmira in the face again. But, he thought, it was more that embarrassment, really. He felt a tiny pain in his chest whenever he thought of her. And he'd thought a great deal about her during the long summer. She signified something more than just the object of his infatuation. His try to get her to say yes to him had been his try to broaden himself, and it had failed miserably. He sighed and shrugged off his gloom. He would see Rose very soon. That would be a good thing. He hurried his steps to the Great Hall.

* * * * *

Rose yawned widely as she stumbled out of bed, the first morning of term. The other girls of her dorm were sleeping (of course), with the exception of Morgan, who was probably curled up on an armchair in the Common Room, with a book. The air outside was cool and the sun was just peaking out from behind the clouds.

It wasn't until after Rose came out of the shower that her dorm mates began showing signs of life. Alice was still in bed, only strands of her short, dark hair poking out from beyond the mess of bedclothes. Rose, who was a morning person, sauntered up to Alice's bed and sang out in a sugary, annoying voice, "Rise and shine, my little birdy! Come on, get out of bed!"

Alice, who most certainly did not share Rose's enthusiasm for mornings, uttered what sounded like growls and muffled oaths while burrowing deeper and deeper into the covers. Akira laughed as she came out of the bathroom, still wet and wearing a thick white towel, running her wand through her black hair to dry it. "You know, you really are annoying in the morning."

Rose just shrugged and pointed her wand at Alice's alarm clock, which promptly began beeping loudly and obnoxiously. Alice let out a feral snarl as her body shot out of the sheets as quick as a doxie. She seized the little plastic alarm clock off the night stand, yanked the window open viciously, then launched the thing out of it as hard as if she were a Chaser scoring a quaffle.

There was a moment of silence as all three of them (Olivia was in the bathroom) regarded the window, waiting for the inevitable: CRASH! And then, unexpectedly, a cry of pain and fury rang out across the grounds. As one, the girls ran to the window and looked downwards. Far below them was the dirty, bent figure of Argus Filch, lying on the dew-covered ground, unmoving.

"You killed Filch!" Akira squeaked, looking at Alice with both horror and awe in her dark brown eyes. For a moment, it seemed as though Alice had succeeded in what generations of Hogwarts students, legions of dark wizards, murderous magical creatures, poisoned cat food, and the reincarnation of the devil himself (aka Mrs. Norris) had failed to do.

"No!" Alice answered, looking flabbergasted, "He's just unconscious. Look! He's stirring!"

Indeed, Filch was moaning, still on his back, clutching his head. Rose let out a relieved breath of air. "Thank Merlin! If you'd offed him, Mrs. Norris'd probably massacre you in your sleep."

"Come on, let's get to breakfast," said Akira, turning from the window, "I'm starving."

* * *

The girls went down to breakfast together after their Filch episode, hoping that Filch hadn't chanced to look up the tower, for he would most certainly have seen three seventh year girls looking guiltily down at him. When they finally got down to the Great Hall however, their seventh year male counterparts were discussing what had happened to Filch.

"I don't ever remember him ever going down to the hospital wing," said Alvin, eagerly. "He doesn't stand for magical healing. Mustiv' been something really bad. Maybe he was mulled by a centaur?"

The girls hid laughter as the boys discussed possible reasons for Filch's wounds. When the theories began to get a little wild, Rose finally decided to tell them.

"What!" cried James, in righteous indignation. "No! We always do the first prank of the year."

Akira rolled her eyes, "So? It wasn't even intentional."

Alec looked annoyed too. "The definition of prank, as defined by the original four Marauders, now deceased, is 'a trick that induces laughter or amusement in one at the cost of the embarrassment or injury of another.' It doesn't matter if it was intentional or not."

Rose, drowning her waffles in maple syrup, looked up and said bluntly, "So?"

"So," replied Alvin, "You broke the rules. Only the Marauders are given the honor of performing the first prank of the year."

Rose, suddenly enraged, flicked the piece of pancake she was about to put in her mouth at Alvin. "What the hell do you mean by calling yourselves the 'Marauders?' They're from two generations ago! Who gave you the right to take the name?"

"The Marauders," explained James as though he were talking to a toddler who would just not accept that two plus two equals four, "Were the best pranksters that ever went to Hogwarts, better even than the Weasley twins"-here he looked apologetically at Fred-"So they can't just disappear. We're not really taking their name, but we're taking their title. 'Marauders' is the name taken by the best pranksters of the day."

"Oh, so you automatically assume you're the best?" asked Rose, getting fired up again.

Alvin shrugged, still cleaning bits of pancake off his skin. "Well, yeah, I mean, who else is there?"

"There's me." Said Rose automatically, and then regretted it. It was true that, when they were younger, before she'd drifted towards the girls, she had been the one who'd planned most of their pranks, but the idea of thinking of her as being better than James, Fred, Alec and Alvin combined was laughable at best. Especially since she was so out of practice.

"Oh, but this is nice," sneered Alec, "Little Red Riding Robe thinks she can out-prank us. And alone, too!"

James laughed, "Come on Rose, you're Head Girl, you can't go around pulling pranks!"

Rose smiled, "You're right, no one would suspect the Head Girl of doing anything against the rules. I'd never get caught. Whereas you four will always be at the top of the teachers' list."

"Hold on a minute," Fred broke in, still chewing on an omelet. "Are you…challenging us?"

Alvin laughed. "No way! She's only one person. And she's a girl!"

Alice, who'd been chatting with Akira, heard this last comment and pulled out her wand and turned to face Alvin in the same movement. "What was that last part?" Sexism was at the top of her list of taboos. She was a beater of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and she could easily have incapacitated Alvin by hitting him with her wand as with a curse.

Alvin backtracked at speed of light. "Er, what I meant was that girls…rarely ever get involved in shady stuff, especially at Hogwarts." He eyed her wand nervously. He still hadn't forgotten the time she'd cursed his pants to turn into gerbils. The gerbils hadn't been so very happy in their new state of being and had commenced biting everything within the reach of their mouths, resulting in a very painful and embarrassing trip Madame Pomfrey's.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" asked Alice.

Rose quickly intervened, "He means he thinks that we couldn't be better pranksters than they are." It was best to redirect Alice's wrath to something nonperishable.

"Oh yes we can!" said Alice automatically. Her pride would not allow her to take anything lying down.

"What are you doing?" whispered Rose.

"I'm putting them in their place, Rose!" said Alice loudly, turning to her friend, "They go around strutting in Gryffindor Tower like they own the place, just because they've made a few things explode! It's high time someone showed them they aren't so great as they think!"

"Oh, Alice!" laughed James, putting a hand around her waist. "Come on! You can't honestly think you girls could put on a better show than us? I mean, we've been amusing and terrorizing this school for years!"

"Oh yeah? I bet we can!" countered Alice.

"And what exactly do you bet?" asked Fred at once.

"Wait, Fred, no!" cried James. "You can't!"

But it was too late. "You want to enter a bet with us?" Asked Alice, her eyes sparkling at the challenge.

"No!" yelled James loudly.

"What's the problem, James?" asked Alec angrily.

"He just doesn't want to do it because it'll mean he can't get any action from Alice for a while," explained Akira, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, well, this is all great and everything, but are we or are not having a bet?" asked Fred impatiently.

"Yes we are!" said Alice.

"But there are two of you!" exclaimed James, gesturing towards Rose and Alice.

"Three," said Akira automatically. She would not be left out. She turned and caught sight of Morgan Alison. Morgan, knowing exactly what she had in mind, tried to slip away form the table and escape, but was unsuccessful. Akira caught her arm and dragged her back to her seat. "And now, with Morgan, we have four!"

Morgan turned a deep shade of red and looked down at her plate, unwilling to look at any of the boys. Rose registered, for the briefest moment, Alec's face softening, his upturned face lowering. But the moment passed so quickly that Rose was confused about whether it had happened at all.

"Alright then, its a bet," said Fred. "But what are you guys wagering?"

The four girls looked at each other and it was Rose that answered, "Maybe we should postpone that until the end of everything."

"That could work," said Fred. "Or how about this? Whichever group wins decides the terms at the end."

"That's good," said Alec, "How long should the contest last?"

"How about until the end of the year, when we'll decide who pulled off the best prank? Or until one group admits defeat? This is our last year, so its one more thing to look forward to in June." enthused Akira.

They all nodded or gave their ascent.

Alvin flashed a grin. "We've got our first prank planned for today, in Potions. We'll show you girls something you won't forget."

The students had begun to get up, dragging themselves off to the first class of the semester. The seventh year Gryffindors also began to get up. Suddenly, Rose's heart gave a tiny shudder as she saw Scorpius on the other side of the hall. He saw her too and gave her a small nod, his expression very wooden She gave him a crooked smile and bobbed her chin to say _'W__hat's up? Why so glum?' _

He cocked his head to one side and than the other, to say _'Nothing important.'_

She pursed her lips and lifted one eyebrow: _'Right...I wasn't born yesterday.'_

He shrugged, saying '_It doesn't matter.'_

She grinned at him and winked. _'I'll get it out of you later.'_

Then the crowd carried him away and she couldn't see him anymore. She sighed. Their silent conversation through facial expressions was amusing, but there was a bitter note in it. It was born of six years of keeping the secret of their relationship, one that weighed heavily on her. It reminded her of the amount of trust her friends and her mother and father put in her. Her father. Rose winced at the thought. She was lying to them all by keeping Scorpius a secret, but most of all she was lying to her father. She was betraying his trust. She was breaking his promise to him. What would he say when he found out. Rose resolved never to tell him she was best friends with the boy he'd told her to stay away from.

Rose sped up to walk with Alice and Morgan as they headed to their N.E.W.T level potions class with Professor Slughorn. James, Sean, Alec, Alvin, and Olivia were also their, along with an assortment of students from other houses. Scorpius was also their, Rose realized. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second before they broke apart, Rose turning to sit on a long table in the front of the class. James, behind her, leaned forward to whisper, "Watch and learn, ladies. This prank is gonna be the best!"

Rose rolled her eyes at him and took her seat. To her left sat Alice and to her right sat Morgan. On the other side of Morgan was Olivia. Rose thought this seating arrangement was quite good. Alice and Olivia were on opposite sides of the table, while Morgan, who didn't generally get involved with the petty arguments between the other girls, acted as a barrier between Olivia and the other two. Olivia was sitting with her back erect against the chair, her chin resting on her chest. Her light, curling brown hair falling down to hide most of her face. Alice was glaring at her.

Rose was about to say something to Alice when suddenly, from a door from his office, Professor Slughorn appeared. Professor Slughorn was...large. Rose could not deny it, the first word that came to her mind when she saw him was 'large'. He had snow-white hair that was receding in places and a mustache of the same color. He looked very much like the wizard version of a Santa Claus, or a walrus.

He surveyed them jovially, his eyes alighting as he spotted his favorites or skipping over others that he didn't care for. "Well, well! Its good to see you all have chosen to carry on with Potions from last year! Very good, very good. Now, I know all your teachers will be reminding you of this, but I just want to say, this is your last year here at Hogwarts, your N.E.W.T year. I'll be working you harder than any of my other classes ever work, so be ready!" He looked solemnly at them all, as though taking a dramatic pause so his words would sink in better. He continued in a lighter tone, "Now, on to your first lesson of the year! Today, we will be making a very difficult sleeping draught that is actually meant for magical creatures such as thestrals and unicorns. The draught can be kept for long periods of time and Professor Hagrid uses it to make patching up wounds easier, because the beasts fall asleep and can't struggle or feel pain. You have enough time during this class period to complete the potion, so I guess we should cracking on! However, due to the difficulty level of the potion, you will be working in pairs..."

Slughorn moved amongst the students to pair them off, one boy and one girl. Rose was paired with Sean, who, being a quiet sort of boy, was not the worst partner she could have. Rose instinctively looked across the room and located Scorpius, Olivia seating herself next to him. He also looked up and caught her eye. He smiled ruefully, as if to say, '_this is going to be a long two hours.' _

Rose furrowed her brow and flicked her chin towards Olivia: _'Come on! You've got to try!" _Rose smiled slightly as Scorpius looked down at Olivia, saying something to her quietly as they opened their pages to the proper page. Their faces were very close together. Too close, Rose realized. Their closeness in the cold, claustrophobic dungeon made her angry, for some reason. Their breath mingled in the chilly air of the room. Did they have to be that close to hear each other? For one second, Rose supported Alice's dislike of Olivia. Stupid, boy-stealing bimbo!

_Wait...boy-stealing? But, Scorpius isn't...I mean, James was Alice's boyfriend when Olivia wanted him...it's not the same...is it? I mean, I can't be jealous if Olivia's sitting next to Scorpius, he's my friend. But I don't like her sitting next to him...Am I so protective of him that I don't even want him to talk to people I don't think are nice? I mean, he's not a defenseless child, he doesn't need me to protect him,..even if he doesn't have any experience with stupid, sneaky girl like Oliva..._

"Its about to start," said Sean, breaking into her thoughts with his nervous voice. He anxiously ran his hand through his hair and threw a look at James, Alec and Alvin each. Rose knew he was speaking of the boys' prank.

"Do you know what their doing?" asked Rose, stirring her cauldron.

"No," said Sean apologetically, and dropped his eyes to the textbook. Sean was often excluded from the other boys' plans. He was generally silent and didn't mix with others. Rose often wondered why James, Alec, Fred and Alvin had become so close and yet their group had never included Sean, despite the fact that they lived in the same dorm. Could it be similar to her own distancing from the boys as she grew up and sought friends of the same gender? _No, _she thought, _its got to be something else._

But Rose's attention was diverted as she heard Olivia laugh. She was beaming up at Scorpius, who was smiling nervously down at her. She flipped her hair. Rose felt annoyed again. She was going to trick Scorpius with her...her feminine wiles! That bimbo! Rose wanted to get up and spill the contents of her cauldron on top of her head. How dare she mess with her best friend's feelings?

Scorpius looked up at her now and smiled slightly. His smile made things worse. Rose gritted her teeth and frowned. She regretted it instantly. Scorpius's smile was replaced with a look of worry. They were so good at communicating this way that they could sense the slightest change in each other's mien. Rose dropped her gaze, feeling guilty. She was the one who had encouraged him to be more outgoing. Shouldn't she be happy for him now that some one was responding to him? That he'd made a friend, even if it was Olivia? Was she that possessive?

However, Rose didn't have to think about this too long, as suddenly, many things happened in quick succession. First, she felt a slight wind as Alvin breezed passed her and deftly dropped something into her cauldron. Rose stared with horror as Alvin sped back to his seat and her cauldron began to sizzle. The contents turned black.

And then, with a force that shook the room, her cauldron exploded.

Rose was thrown back into the desk behind her as Sean landed on the ground. "Ow!" she moaned, clutching her head as the screaming began. She was covered in the black liquid of her cauldron, along with everyone else in the entire room, even Professor Slughorn. She felt as if her entire body was tingling, her body jerking. It was as if she had lost her sense of equilibrium, she could barely stand up straight. All around her, students were picking themselves up, or at least trying to. Many fell back to the floor, as though drunk. Multiple chairs and a table had been knocked over, the contents of two more cauldron also on the ground. Professor Slughorn, wiping his face with a handkerchief in one hand and clutching a table with another, addressed them.

"Now, now, everyone, stay calm. We need to assess the situation!" But then he stopped talking and his face took on an odd look. Rose noticed it too: his voice sounded...different. Higher. Girlish...

Then someone let out a bloodcurdling scream. Rose turned as James fell to the ground, looking horrified. "OH MY GOD! WHERE'S MY DICK?!"

And then he fainted and all hell broke loose in the dungeon.

* * * * *

A/N: Hahaha, James, you are so immature!

Date of next submission: February 25

Alright, I'm getting worried since there are so many characters in the story, so I'll create an index of the seventh year gryffindors:

Girls: Rose Weasley, Alice Longbottom, Akira Chang, Morgan Alison, Olivia Stanton

Boys: James Potter, Alec Weasley, Alvin McCohany, Fred Weasley, Sean Daley

Other: Scorpius Malfoy (7th year Slytherin), Daniel Mortenson (7th year Slytherin), Al Potter (6th year Gryffindor), Lily Potter (6th year Gryffindor), Hugo Weasley (6th year  
Gryffindor)

Hope no one's too confused with this many characters.

_Can anyone guess what the boys' prank was?_

I haven't decided what the girls will do in retaliation. Any ideas on what the girls' next prank should be? I'll take the best prank that is suggested!


End file.
